Last week we were tweeting from a Cardiff council planning committee meeting on the number of incidents around an area known as 'death junction'.

The fascinating history of the site of gallows in Cardiff emerged with followers on Twitter reminding us that while many think the crossroads between Albany, City, Richmond, Mackintosh and Crwys Roads comes from its dangerous nature – it was in fact the site of actual hangings.

Cardiff poet and historian Peter Finch explains:

"Back in the days when Cardiff was as small as the Castle to the bottom of St Mary Street, this junction was once the site of the Cardiff gallows and the fields surrounding it were where the hanged dead, unsanctified and unclean, were buried."

Finch has a longer look at the area on City Road in his Real Cardiff series – the extract of which is here. There's also a webpage dedicated to the site here.

But many cyclists in the city joked on the social networking site that despite its seemingly misleading name – the junction is in fact a bit of a death trap for road users.

Sam Coates got in touch following our post to say he put in a similar freedom of information request last August and was given information on the number and detail of the incidents on this site from 2007-2009 – we've mapped these here and intend to update the map with the figures following our FOI.

The accidents happen on all days of the week at all times – but with a cluster over the weekends and the most serious accident occurring between a pedal bike and a taxi which reversed into it.